


Bistro

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Beauty and the Beast Elements, Boss/Employee Relationship, Bryce is the MVP of this fic, But he's our trash, Car Chases, Ethan is trash, F/M, First Dates, Flirting, Jealousy, Kissing, Male Friendship, Not out of choice but Gaston is in there, Slow Burn, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29882727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Ethan realises MC’s on a date with someone else… at the bistro he used to go to with Harper.OH3 chap 3 continuation and rewrite. Ethan’s POV.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 6





	Bistro

Edenbrook felt different to Ethan. He couldn’t explain why but tonight, the blinding white lights of the hospital brought a trail of goosebumps over him.

Perhaps it was the malice in Bloom’s steely eyes earlier. Or maybe it was because he hadn’t felt Eve’s warm emerald gaze fall on him all afternoon. As he rounded the corner, he felt a modicum of comfort in the face that approached him.

“Dr Lahela, have you seen Eve?”

Bryce ran a hand through his hair and shuffled slowly.

“Yeah, she just left for her date.” 

“Date? But I’m not tak…”

He tailed off at the cautious sympathy on Bryce’s face.

“It’s not with you.”

It was at his core, the sinking pit of his stomach dropping ten floors into oblivion, as his heart beat so hard in his chest he was sure half the hospital could hear its violent rhythm. 

It was just adrenaline and cortisol, he reminded himself as his throat tightened unnaturally. And this, this was a joke.

“She wouldn’t,” he raised his chin confidently, “She’s my… we’re seeing each other.”

“Yeah, I know, man. But that’s what happens when you keep talking about your ex in front of your girl. She gets mad.”

If Ethan’s heart was thundering before, then now it was positively raging. A storm gathered on his face, and his voice dropped lower.

“What are you talking about?”

The sympathy faded from Bryce’s face and he stood tall. 

“She’s gone to Gaston’s. Remember that place? You went there with Dr Emery? A lot.”

He had to ask the question even though he guessed the answer and could see it charging towards him with a revelation he didn’t want. 

“How do you know about that?”

“Because you talked about it in front of Eve. And it bothered her enough that she told me.”

The sigh was almost silent, the smallest gasp of air leaving him and with it taking every last sense of peace he’d known.

He’d been reminiscing too much with Harper, they both had. The truth was, it was refreshing to talk about old times, to think about Edenbrook in his younger days with swathes of pesky interns to swat away and more medical conundrums than hi-tech robot assistants zooming around. 

He missed the simplicity of those years. Walking down the river to Gaston’s after a tiring day, and drinking himself stupid. Being able to take sick days for a hangover and not worry about paperwork. Frivolous flamenco lessons once in a while instead of yet more work. 

He was nostalgic for the old Edenbrook. Not Harper.

Edenbrook without Bloom.

Harper knew that of course. It was liberating to talk about the old days with her and just pretend for a second that he wasn’t pushing 40, the Director of a team he was fast losing control over, and a servant to the whims of the hospital’s dubious underwriter. 

But Eve wasn’t a mind reader and if he was truly honest, they hadn’t been doing a lot of talking lately. He’d waited so long to be with her openly, to press her against every wall of his apartment, to taste her whenever he wanted, to lie beside her every night and watch the moonlight dance over her sleepy smile. Words hadn’t really come into it. 

He was a fool. 

“I…she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t go on a date.”

He was half hoping Bryce would give him a flash of his usual smile and tell him this was a joke. Her friends were always teasing him and this had to be some sort of prank. But Bryce’s next words sank him. 

“Yeah, she’s crazy about you. She’s just with one of my surgeon buddies, she doesn’t even like him so go easy on her.”

“A surgeon?!” Ethan paled with disgust. 

“Seriously, Ethan?” Bryce waved his magic hands at him pointedly. 

“I didn’t mean that, apologies.”

The surgeon leaned in and clapped him on the back with a gentle smile. Eyes wide and vulnerable, with a soft pinch at his forehead, Ethan was pitiable.

“Look, she left for that Gaston’s place 10 minutes ago so you can probably catch her. I don’t think she wants to be there.”

“Right.”

The adrenaline kicked in as he thumbed the car keys in his pocket and stalked out in haste. Five steps away he turned back to Bryce, who was now grinning at him. 

“Lahela. Thanks.”

“Go get her, man.”

He sped through the hallway, his white coat swooshing like the cape of the ridiculous superhero outfit Eve had been wearing earlier. 

He’d never worked with a doctor who’d dress up for her patients. Plenty who were as smart and astute as her but none that cared as much. He remembered her from first year, the gentle focus and devastating determination that had made him fall in lo...

Lost in thought he charged straight into a small figure who squeaked loudly.

“Sorry!”

“Dr Trinh,” he watched Sienna brush down her dress nervously, “I expect you know where Eve is?”

She peered up at him cautiously, her voice a hushed whisper.

“I’m not supposed to say anything.”

He nodded. A flash of the past came back to him, not years ago but weeks. All of them together, Eve’s head on his shoulders and her hand in Sienna’s, sitting in the park, watching a film at the outdoor cinema in Danny’s memory. 

“I’m going after her.”

He was unsure for a moment, searching for a tacit permission in Sienna’s eyes. She gave it without hesitation through a relieved smile.

He was out the doors of Edenbrook in moments.

***

**Don’t hate me but I had to, E**

Eve blinked at the text from Bryce, and placed her phone onto the soft cotton tablecloth. Whatever he’d done it would have to wait. 

She swirled the dark velvet Beaujolais around her wine glass and took a sip, smiling at her companion. 

Gaston’s was a small bistro, as intimate and charming as Harper had promised. And for the first time all day, she finally felt relaxed. She ran her hand down the stem of the wine glass and laughed at the silky accented voice in front of her. 

Ethan didn’t exactly burst in, but his entrance wasn’t graceful. He knew he was lacking his usual poise as he pushed open the small door of the bistro with an urgent ferocity its hinges could hardly bear.

His hair was windswept and his expression unsettled, but how the hell are you supposed to look when the woman you’re seeing is off on a romantic date with some idiot scalpel jockey. He ran a hand through his hair trying to compose himself as he ignored the other patrons now staring at him looking around desperately.

Her eyes locked on his and it was instantaneous. The low breath that swept the tension out of his body, and eased him. 

It was always like this. If she was close, he was calm.

Maybe she was his reward for something he’d done right in another life.

They stared at one another for a moment, perhaps minutes, it was hard to tell against his pulse relaxing into a gentle affirming beat that he was sure mirrored hers.

And then he watched her companion turn to greet him with a wide smile that must’ve mirrored the crooked grin on his own face.

He barely had time to be surprised before the man approached him and was whisking him to Eve’s table.

“Ahhh Dr Ramsey, excellent to see you again. Dr Emery told me you had a beautiful new companion now but I didn’t know she’d be so witty. She’s been talking to me while she waited for you and telling me all your secrets.”

Ethan managed to greet Gaston without taking his eyes off Eve. She was here. Right here.

Gaston leaned into to him with a conspiratorial whisper, “I watch Nigella too.” 

Ethan sat down at the table dumbly, just about processing that his company was not unwelcome when Eve smiled at him, her radiance outshining the candlelight she was bathed in.

Her face was flushed slightly, he’d notice the rosy glow his company seemed to elicit in her intern year but that he could still have the same effect now, stirred something deep within him.

“You’re here alone?” he muttered, taking her hand across the table.

She gazed at him, gently furrowing her eyes in concern.

“Ethan, are you okay? This was supposed to be a surprise for you but you look…tense.”

“Bryce…”

“Yeah he said he’d find a way to get you here, what the hell did he say?” She glanced over at her phone.

“Nothing.”

He made a mental note to thank Lahela. Or punch him. He wasn’t sure which one was more justified. 

“I just thought we could spend some time together after everything with Bloom and as you mentioned this place before…”

“I didn’t mean to.”

The words stumbled from him in apology but Eve didn’t notice.

“What? Nevermind. Harper made the reservation for us. She gave me a list of all the things I should try. She said you’ll try to get me to order the steak but I shouldn’t listen to you,” she grinned.

“I don’t want to talk about Harper. Or anyone else.”

“O…kay.”

There wasn’t a trace of resentment on her face. 

That familiar calm washed over him as he ran his own hand over hers, tracing the outline of each finger with the tips of his.

“I haven’t focused on you as much as I should have.”

“Well you can make it up to me tonight.”

Eve wrapped her hand around his tightly and brought it to her lips in a small kiss, holding his gaze with fierce intent. 

“It’s really fancy here, intimate,” she said. “You have competition by the way, Gaston’s taken a shine to me.”

“He’s quite the flirt,” Ethan laughed. 

He stared down at their interlaced fingers. 

“Lahela told me you were on a date with someone else.”

A mischievous smile curved her rosy mouth. 

“Wow, and you actually believed him?”

“He was very convincing. Sienna helped him.”

She looked like she was trying to stifle a laugh but she squeezed his hand tighter.

“And that made you race all the way down here.”

Ethan nodded. The enormity of what he thought he might’ve lost constricted his chest.

“I’d travel anywhere for you.”

“Ethan…”

He pushed a dark strand out of her face and let his hand linger in the soft whispers of her hair.

“Just so you know. There’s no comparison. To anyone.”

“Well how could there be.”

She pointed to herself with a wicked grin that made Ethan laugh again.

He lowered his voice and lent across the small table, cupping her face.

“For me, it’s always you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. Ruby’s rewrite trashcan week 3 is so happy you visited. 
> 
> So did you all guess that Bryce was just teaching Ethan a lesson? I live for the Bryce/Ethan friendship.


End file.
